Pursuit of the Truth

That place was a gigantic empty expanse of land, and there was an exit in the distance, leading to a tunnel that would stretch down even further.

There were nearly a hundred bubbles floating in midair in that empty expanse of land. Most of the bubbles had already burst, but they did not disappear. Instead, they existed around the area like egg shells. They might have burst, but the entirety of the bubble was still there.

As Su Ming looked at the bubbles, he walked past them slowly in silence until a complete bubble appeared before him. That bubble was thirty feet tall, and it floated in midair without moving.

In there… was a middle-aged man with scales growing on his chest. His eyes were shut, and there was a bloody hole at the center of his brows. It was the wound that had brought about his demise.

This was a corpse, a corpse that had died for an unknown number of years and had been preserved for an unknown amount of time…

Su Ming looked at the bubble before him, then walked past it, and he saw another complete bubble. There was another corpse contained within it. This one was a woman. She had black wings on her back and possessed breathtaking beauty. She looked to be at peace. On her body was a ferocious face of a malicious spirit formed by veins. Perhaps that was the cause of her death.

There were nearly a hundred bubbles in the place, but only eight were completely undamaged, and all of them contained a corpse inside…

”Under the orders of the Spirits of Nine Yin, we left the True Sacred Yin World and headed to the other three True Worlds in search for corpses that belonged to powerful warriors…” The old Spirit of Nine Yin’s words echoed in Su Ming’s head at that moment.

He walked through the empty expanse of land, then charged down the entrance of the tunnel located at the end of this place. After a moment, as the tunnel continued trembling, another empty expanse of land appeared before him.

There were less than fifty bubbles in this place. Four of them were in perfect condition, and the rest had all burst.

Su Ming continued walking downwards and went through multiple empty expanses of land like those before. He had already come to understand the structure of this place. This tunnel was like a tube, and there were several bumps in this tube. An empty expanse of land could be found at all these bumps.

In the seventh empty expanse of land, Su Ming saw a gigantic bubble floating in the middle. This bubble might have already burst, but when Su Ming looked at it, he could sense a feeling of endlessness coming from it. Perhaps this was just a figment of his imagination, but perhaps this bubble itself could be a dimension of its own.

His body shuddered slightly as he stood by the edge of the bubble. He sensed the presence of a Candle Dragon.

”We were tasked to search for powerful corpses in the universe…” The old man’s voice rang once again in Su Ming’s head. He looked at the huge bubble before him and came to an understanding.

”This bubble was originally prepared for the Candle Dragon’s carcass… because of the damage to the Enchanted Vessel, many of these bubbles had burst…” Su Ming mumbled. He looked around him, and the sense of familiarity rose within him once again.

He charged forward silently once more and arrived at the eighth empty expanse of land. Over there, he saw three bubbles!

These three bubbles were incredibly large, but all of them had already burst. It was unknown what was contained within them in the past.

When Su Ming arrived at the ninth empty expanse of land, he found himself… at the final part of the tunnel. There were no longer any entrances leading to another tunnel around him anymore. This place was the end.

There was only one air bubble here…

It was the smallest of all the bubbles Su Ming had seen in all the empty expanses of land he had passed through!

It was only about the size of an arm’s length, and if there was any sort of corpse contained within, that corpse could only possibly be… of an infant!

It was a pity, because the bubble had already burst. It was empty inside, and the remains of the bubble were floating silently in that huge and empty expanse of land, still and unmoving.

When Su Ming saw this bubble, he was stunned. He forgot everything, and even if the land trembled so hard it was about to collapse, he still did not care about it. His whole existence and his gaze were focused solely on that small bubble.

For some unknown reason, tears trickled down from his eyes. He slowly walked up to the bubble, lifted his right hand, and gently touched it. After a long while, he moved his head upwards, cast a deep look at the bubble, then turned around and headed back through the path he had taken to come here.

There was no hint of reluctance to leave this place nor a single pause in his footsteps, only his forlorn back view betrayed his firm resolution, and an air of loneliness and sorrow. In the blink of an eye, he disappeared into the tunnel, leaving behind that bubble to continue staying in this place, after having been kept here for who knows how long…

Su Ming had tried breaking the undamaged bubbles before, but with his current level of cultivation, he could not even cause a tear in them. As he left, he no longer looked at those bubbles. As he charged forth, the tunnel finally started breaking down.

The tunnel collapsed behind him and buried the spaces within, along with everything in them.

The path before Su Ming continued breaking down, forcing him to increase his speed. When he arrived at the fork, roars traveled forth from the path in the middle as it was collapsing. There was a hint of madness in those roars.

As those sounds reverberated in the air, more signs of destruction appeared in the tunnel to the right. Then, with a loud boom, it completely collapsed. The endless fog in the world outside started moving backwards swiftly, causing it to be impossible to discern whether it was the fog or the bronze sky that was moving.

Yet at the instant that tunnel collapsed, a figure charged out. Su Ming did not stop. Even when he heard the roar from the tunnel in the middle, he did not cast even a single glance at it. He simply shot forth to the tunnel with the Relocation Rune.

Signs of collapse were obvious in many areas. Once Su Ming left, the tunnel in the middle completely collapsed and disappeared. Thick fog could be seen rolling from within. The destruction spread out, causing a large part of the tunnel to the left to also collapse and disappear.

This disappearance of the tunnel made it seem as if the World of Nine Yin was vanishing. It was like there was an eerie, invisible mouth that was devouring the tunnel nonstop. Su Ming charged forward, and after a moment, he came to a halt. The tunnel before him had collapsed, blocking off his path to the Relocation Rune with the fog.

A glint appeared in Su Ming’s eyes. He only paused for a brief moment before he strode forth quickly, making it seem like he had stepped into the fog. A powerful suction force pulled his body inside, and a cold wave of air also closed in on him, as if it wanted to drag him into the darkness of the fog.

Golden light shone around Su Ming’s entire body, and banging sounds echoed within it. At the instant the suction force came sweeping towards him, he turned into a long arc and shot forward as the tunnel collapsed before him.

Once Su Ming went through that collapsing tunnel, his breathing became labored and his face was pale, but he did not stop. He continued charging forward, eventually reaching the Relocation Rune as the area continued breaking down!

There were now more cracks in this place, causing the Rune to seem as if it was about to be torn apart and destroyed. The light on the Rune had become much duller. Once the light was extinguished, the Rune would cease operations, and even if Su Ming wanted to leave by then, it would be impossible!

If he stepped onto the Rune right at that moment, he could still be relocated, but he remained standing at its edge. There was firm decisiveness in his eyes, and he did not step inside!

He turned around and looked at the tunnel before him. It was now completely destroyed. He watched the rolling fog before his eyes and abruptly spread his divine sense outward. This was a complete burst of his Nascent Divinity’s power. He wanted to let himself see everything during that instant.

When he spread his divine sense outward, he saw endless fog. Shrill roars were coming from inside it. Besides these things, he saw or heard nothing else.

However, he could sense that the spot where he stood was moving rapidly and shooting through the fog.

After a moment, everything beside the Rune beside Su Ming broke down, and he immediately detected that the large layer of fog within his divine sense was tumbling about intensely. He saw the fog turn into a gigantic vortex, and then a powerful ray of light shoot through the center of that vortex. Right after, an ancient shuttle-shaped bronze sword that shone with a bronze light and was so large that its end could not be seen emerged from that ray of light!

With an indescribable speed, that sword seemed to be struggling to break free of the vortex made of thick fog. Light sparkled brilliantly on its body, and gradually, it flew out of the fog with a bang!

The instant it flew out, a black claw of fog shot out to grab that sword, but it did not manage to catch it. The ancient, shuttle-shaped, gigantic, bronze sword broke free of the vortex with its charge!

It was also right at that moment that Su Ming could clearly feel where he was. He was within the ancient bronze sword that had shot out of the fog, and this sword was clearly the Enchanted Vessel of the Sacred Yin World that could move through True Worlds!

The Relocation Rune behind Su Ming turned even duller as if all the power that was supporting its operations was being absorbed by the ancient gigantic bronze sword.

”Wait a little longer… just a little longer…” Su Ming mumbled. His eyes were blood-red. He had spread his divine sense to cover a large area, and he could see the ancient gigantic bronze sword. He also saw the entirety of the vortex in the fog as the sword continued flying into the distance!

This was a wide expanse of a galaxy, and in a spot of that galaxy was a vortex of fog rotating endlessly. As it rotated and as the ancient bronze sword left into the distance, the rotations in the fog gradually disappeared, just like how a black hole would slowly close up after a time of being open.

At the same time, Su Ming’s face slowly started changing. A dense aura of death emerged from inside and outside his body. It was as if that aura of death had always existed in him, but Su Ming had never been able to see or sense it in the past.

Su Ming shuddered, but he ignored that aura of death, because he saw it. The vast galaxy, the brilliant stars, and the long arcs that could be seen among the stars. Those long arcs were clearly people. They wore gorgeous clothes, and at that moment, they came to a halt. Their faces could not be seen, but their hearts had to be filled with shock and amazement once they saw the ancient gigantic bronze sword.

Su Ming saw the galaxy, saw the round planets, and also the continents that floated in the galaxy…

”So… this is how it is…” Su Ming mumbled. His body became weaker, as if this was a place off limits to all forms of life, and was not a place that he could come at the moment. He staggered backwards, and as the light in the Rune disappeared, he stepped inside.

”You don’t belong to this place… I will send you back to where you belong… But I believe that someday, you will be able to walk out from the other side of the mirror with your own strength…” The voice of the old Spirit of Nine Yin reverberated in the air, bringing with it words of parting.

Su Ming’s body gradually disappeared, but the instant he completely vanished, he suddenly asked this question.

”You were tasked to search for corpses in the past. Did you… find a dead baby?”

”Hmm? You…” Shock suddenly seeped into the old Spirit of Nine Yin’s voice, and as if he had remembered something, his remaining words turned into a sharp inhale caused by shock.

Before Su Ming disappeared, a brilliant light shone in his eyes.

”True Sacred Yin World… Spirits of Nine Yin, I will come find you…”